


On the Road

by embolalia



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, What if Kara were a trucker?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:59:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1910103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embolalia/pseuds/embolalia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara is working as a long-haul trucker to earn cash for college. Lee meets her late one night at a diner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Kara yawns widely, then tries to shake herself awake. It’s just past 3AM, still the beginning of her drive, and she can’t get tired yet. It’s starting to snow and the roads aren’t salted; falling asleep is an even worse idea than usual. Glancing out the window as a sign flashes past, she glimpses a sign for a truck stop and swings into the right lane. On the radio, Hendrix starts to play and she grins, turning it up as the music starts to build. All she needs is a twenty minute break and she’ll be ready to go.

In the diner at the truck stop, the florescent lights are flickering unsteadily, but the coffee smells like coffee and that’s all Kara’s looking for. She settles onto a stool by the bar and orders from a waitress who looks like she might have been asleep until Kara walked in. Eggs and toast and coffee - hot and hard to screw up.

The door jingles as someone else enters, and Kara turns in surprise.

A young man looks back at her. He’s gorgeous, that’s for sure, and Kara drags her eyes down his body for a lascivious moment.

“Hey,” he says, smiling. “You wouldn’t happen to know the way back to I-95, would you?”

Kara raises an eyebrow. “Where the hell did you come from besides I-95?”

He sighs in relief. “It’s close then? Thank the Gods.” He heads toward her, sits down on the neighboring stool. “Let me buy you a cup of coffee for your help,” he offers, waving to the waitress. Then he holds out his hand. “I’m Lee.”

“Kara.” She takes it, holding his gaze, then breaking off quickly as her heart starts to race inexplicably. “What are you doing way the hell out here at this hour of the night?”

He shrugs. “My girlfriend brought me home for the holidays...but we broke up. I had to leave.”

She winces broadly. “Ouch.”

“Yeah...” Lee sighs. “It was kind of my idea. I’ve just never found that...that connection you’re supposed to have. Plus I think her dad thought I was there to ask if I could marry her.”

Kara snorts in the middle of a sip of coffee and the liquid spurts out of her mouth. Suddenly Lee’s laughing, and then she’s laughing too. “Go ahead, appreciate my pain,” she grumbles, wiping at her shirt as his shoulders shake.

“I will,” he teases back. They stare at each other for a long moment, eyes bright.

“Eggs and toast,” the waitress calls, sliding a plate down the counter to Kara.

She turns to her food, eating quickly while Lee orders pie and the girl serves it up.

“So what are you doing out here?” he finally asks.

Kara takes a long sip of coffee. “Driving,” she answers. “I can make a thousand cubits a week if I push myself hard enough, and I figure by the end of the year I’ll have enough saved for a few semesters of college.”

Lee blinks in surprise. “Oh.”

She arches an eyebrow. “Didn’t think a girl could be a trucker?”

His lips shift, hinting at a grin. “I was just thinking I’ve never seen the inside of a truck like that before.”

Kara gives him a sideways glare. “Mine’s not a sleeper, so just get that off your mind, Mr. Broken Up.” She looks him over brazenly, taking the sting out of her words. If it weren’t so frakking cold out, she’d suggest they could make do in the passenger seat.

Lee shrugs. “Just saying.” He finishes the last bite of his pie. “Where are you headed?”

She yawns, then shakes her head, fighting off sleepiness. “Caprica City. Three hundred miles by dawn.”

“Me, too!” he bursts out, then blushes faintly at his own enthusiasm. “My mom lives there.”

Kara nods. “Well, honk if you see me drifting.” She drops a few cubits on the counter, and slides off her stool.

“Nice to meet you, Kara,” Lee calls as he pays up.

She waves and heads out into the night.

The air is well below freezing as she heads back to her truck, and she pulls her dad’s old leather jacket tight around herself. Just as she reaches the cab, she hears a shout behind her.

“Wait up!”

Lee’s running across the deserted parking lot toward her, his coat flapping open. As he stops before her, panting, snow settles into his long eyelashes. For the space of three breaths he just peers into Kara’s eyes, and then something shifts and he moves toward her in an instant, his lips hovering over hers for the merest second before he kisses her, fast and hot and sure.

The cold fades aways as Lee’s arms wrap around her, as his body presses hers against the truck. Kara kisses him back, her fingers in his hair, holding him close.

When they separate, panting, they’re both grinning like idiots.

“Can I--” Lee waves back toward the diner. “I know what I said before, about just having broken up, but...can I call you? When we get to the city?”

Kara reaches into her pocket for a paper and pen and scribbles down her number. She slaps it against his chest. “You’d better,” she breathes.

Lee takes it and steps back, heading toward his car. He holds the paper with her number against his chest. “I will,” he promises, and disappears into the dark.

She climbs up into the driver’s seat and starts the truck. The same song is playing on the radio, the Dylan version this time. Kara smiles to herself. Their song. She pulls out onto the highway, peering through the snow as it starts to fall harder. Behind her Lee honks three times, and Kara grins as she presses hard on her own horn. It’s nearly four in the morning and she feels like she’s awake for the first time in her life.


	2. Chapter 2

She should be tired right now, after a twelve hour haul, but as Kara lets herself into her apartment she’s bordering on giddy. Lee followed her from the diner all the way to the city line, where he drove east toward the residential areas while she headed west toward the Mercury Shipping Co. lots. After weighing in and signing out, she jumped on her bike and headed home to sleep.

Except she can’t. She doesn’t want to.

Kara turns on the heat and opens the fridge, glancing aimlessly at the beer and cheese and leftovers she’s accumulated. As she reaches for a bottle, her cellphone goes off across the room and Kara jerks, startled. For a moment she stares at it warily. Her mother still hasn’t come to terms with Kara moving away last summer, and the mornings after Socrata’s late-night binges often feature irrational screaming on Kara’s voicemail. She reaches gingerly for the phone as it continues to ring.

When she sees the number, hope suddenly flutters in her chest. Kara’s finger hovers over the call button. Then she presses it. “Hello?”

“Hey,” he says, and she can hear him smiling. “You made it home okay?”

Kara rolls her eyes. “I even got paid for it,” she teases.

“I...” His voice trails off a moment. “It was good to meet you.”

She grins. “You called me up at six in the morning after driving all night to tell me that?”

“Hey,” he defends himself. “And to say we should do something.”

“Okay, when?” Kara settles on the couch, reaching to unlace her boots.

“How about now?” Lee answers. “We’re both awake. We could...frak, what’s open 24 hours? We could go bowling!”

Kara laughs. “My dad used to take me bowling when I was a kid.” Her smile falters, but he can’t see that. She arches an eyebrow. “I used to be pretty good. Bet I could beat you.”

“How much do you want to bet?” he asks, his voice lowering just enough that she think of his kiss.

She lets the question hang. “You want me to pick you up?”

Lee grunts. “I’m definitely tired of driving, but I’d imagine you are, too.”

Kara smirks. “Give me your address, I’ll be there soon.” She scribbles it down on a scrap of newspaper on the table, then pauses, like a schoolgirl who doesn’t want to hang up first. “See you soon,” she makes herself say.

“I’ll be waiting,” he murmurs in her ear, his voice suddenly soft, and she shivers as she hangs up. Eyes bright, she shoves her phone into the pocket of the coat she’s still wearing, and reaches to retie her boots.

Kara tries not to rush; usually she’d keep a boy waiting, but the roads are empty and the plows have already been through. Her motorcycle’s engine is the only noise, a barrier of sound surrounding her. The neighborhoods get nicer as she heads toward the address Lee gave for his mother’s house - the house, when she reaches it, is a brick two-story with a biggish yard. Not terribly fancy, but far nicer than anywhere she and her mom ever lived. Kara doesn’t have time to dwell on it though; Lee’s face appears in the window, scandalized by the sight of her on a bike, and her laughter rings out.

“Seriously?” Lee calls as he locks the front door behind him. “Cause I can drive us if you want to put that in the garage...”

Kara reaches back to unlock the storage compartment. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a second helmet.”

He takes it from her gingerly, glancing uncertainly at the bike.

“It’s okay,” Kara says, her voice dropping as she meets his eyes. “You can put your arms around me if it’ll help you hang on.”

Lee laughs at that, and swings a leg over the bike, settling behind her. His body is a wall of warmth and she flushes a moment as he presses against her, wraps his arms around her waist. “Here we go!” Kara calls out, and guns the engine.

She can tell without asking that Lee’s never been on a bike before. He doesn’t try to talk, or even move. Kara takes a certain amount of amusement in his terror, but she’s too aware of his body against hers to tease. When they reach the bowling alley ten minutes later, Lee smiles sheepishly at his own fear. Kara locks up the helmets and rolls her eyes. “If you want me to ignore that you’re a little girl when it comes to motorcycles, Lee, you’re really going to have to kick my ass at bowling.”

A grin breaks over his face and he sprints toward the door. “You should start getting ready for that now!” he calls over his shoulder.

Kara follows him inside and stops, looking up in bemusement at the neon outlines of various gods and goddesses decorating the ceiling. “This looks exactly like the lanes we had in Delphi when I was a kid.”

Lee shrugs. “It’s a chain, what did you expect?”

Kara snorts. “I don’t know.”

They make their way to the counter, where a teenage boy is sleeping with his head propped on his hand.

Kara gestures to the shoes, waggling her eyebrows at Lee to tell him they should just take some. Lee shakes his head at her and quickly rings the bell for service. The kid jerks away, blinking up at them and yawning. Kara yawns, too, but sleep is still the furthest thing from her mind.

Shoes on, they make their way to the furthest lane. The place is empty but for them, and their voices echo across the polished floors.

Kara winds up and shoots her ball...straight down the gutter.

“Those the skills you’ve been bragging about?” Lee teases.

She rolls her eyes. “Just warming up.” This time she hits five pins. The ball is surprisingly light in her hands.

Lee gets a seven next and they banter back and forth, their scores fairly well matched. Lee does manage one strike, and Kara laughs as the gods on the wall above their lane - Apollo and Artemis - light up and seem to dance. Kara’s a little pissed she’s not winning, but it balances out against the pleasure she takes in watching the muscular grace of Lee winding up and hurtling his ball down the lane.

“Want some help?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow, as Kara prepares for her last turn.

“What did you have in mind?” she asks, straight-faced.

He comes up behind her, rests his hands on her hips. Just a few hours ago he was kissing her, and suddenly she can’t keep her mind on the game. “Stop distracting me there, Apollo,” she mutters.

“Wasn’t my intention,” he murmurs in her ear, and steps back.

Kara throws the ball as hard as she can. It slides straight down the gutter and she turns, glaring. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I know your intentions,” she says slyly.

Lee grins, shrugs, and bowls a perfect strike. He does a little victory dance along with the gods, then falters when he sees Kara looking away. “Everything okay?” he asks softly, moving toward her.

Kara looks around the walls, anywhere but at him. “It’s just strange, how sometimes you remember things differently when you’re a kid.”

“Your dad used to take you?” he asks softly.

She meets his eyes for a moment, and hers are haunted. “Yeah.” She shrugs. “In retrospect, I’m sure he let me win.”

Lee nods. “My old man never would have even taken us to a place like this. He was off with the Fleet, never really knew us.”

Kara glances into his face, sees the raw emotion in his eyes, and finishes her story. “Mine left when I was ten.”

He reaches out, sighing, and rests his hand on her cheek. Kara feels a sudden urge to cry and puts it out of her mind. She’s just tired. She eases toward him, and suddenly she’s hugging him, her face pressed into his neck. Lee holds her tightly.

“I’m glad we did this,” he says quietly, leaning back enough to see her face. And then he kisses her. It’s slow and sure and even better than their kiss out in the snow with a dozen layers between them. Kara opens her mouth under his and kisses him harder. His arms tighten, holding her against him hard as his lips grow more demanding. Kara feels like she could just live in this moment, happily, forever.

“What the frak!” someone shouts behind them, and they jump apart. “This is a public place, not somewhere for frakking kids to engage in indecent--”

“We’re just leaving,” Lee bites out, before Kara can go off on the manager, who seems more startled to see them there than angry. Lee scoops up their shoes and pushes her in front of him. Kara giggles, then takes off, still in her bowling shoes. They dive for the motorcycle even as the manager stands in the doorway, yelling across the snowy parking lot.

On the way home, Kara’s far more conscious of Lee’s body. He’s pressed even closer now, and one of his hands has slipped beneath her coat, is resting on her stomach. She’s flushed and warm, turned on by his nearness. And yet somehow, as they pull up to Lee’s house again, she can’t keep herself from yawning.

Lee waves at the house. “You want to come in? My mom’s at work by now and my brother’s at school...there’s food...” He stops talking to yawn himself, and by the time he’s done Kara’s turned the bike off and hung her helmet from the handlebars.

“Lead the way,” she offers sleepily.

Inside, Lee declares he’s hungry and makes them eggs and toast - she grins to see that he’s remembered - and they eat on the couch, watching cartoons. It feels for just a moment like she has a normal life. A good life. Lee’s arm is warm around Kara’s shoulders, and she rests her head against him as her eyelids grow heavy. On-screen, cartoon Cylons are doing some kind of dance, and Kara blinks wearily, trying to focus.  
  
Just as everything starts to lose meaning, Lee shifts, pulling her to lay down next to him on the couch and tugging an afghan over both of them. Kara opens her eyes, gazing at him in wonderment. Lee’s eyes say he feels it, too. He kisses her lightly and she nestles close.  
  
The whole long night feels like one blur except for this: Lee Adama’s arms around her. Kara smiles as she falls asleep.


End file.
